At a town hall meeting about health care reform yesterday, U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman said he thought Congress should consider specifying that contraception be included in future benefit packages.

At the meeting sponsored by New Mexico First, participant Ozawa Bineshi Albert asked Bingaman to address not just abortion but the entire spectrum of women’s reproductive health.

“Comprehensive reproductive health includes a lot more for women [than just abortion services] and I’d like to know what you would do to ensure that with this current reform to address health inequities and coverage for women… including maternity care, pregnancy care, STD’s, and contraception,” she asked.

Bingaman responded there were provisions in the insurance reforms in the bills that barred discrimination in policies based on gender.  And, he said, the basic services in the benefit packages that all policies would have to cover would be determined by the secretary of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, modeled after the package of services offered now by the typical employer insurance program. Otherwise, he said, he didn’t think the Congress itself ought to micromanage what should be in the benefit plans.

Albert followed up by pointing out that most plans don’t cover contraception.

“You raise a good point,” he said, “and maybe that’s an exception that we ought to specify.”